HitecVision raises $283m for oil and gas

Norwegian venture capital firm HitecVision Private Equity has announced a first closing of its new fund, HitecVision Private Equity IV, with capital commitments totalling $283 million (€230 million).
 
Ole Ertvaag, managing partner at HitecVision, told PEO that the firm originally began marketing the fund solely to local Norwegian limited partners in October of last year with a target of $200 million. By December, said Ertvaag, the fund had received commitments of $280 million.
 

Ole Ertvaag, managing partner, HitecVision Private Equity

Ertvaag said the majority of investors in HitecVision’s previous fund, the vintage 2003 $110 million Energivekst fund, also invested in HitecVision Private Equity IV. However, the latest fund also attracted a commitment from Nordea, the firm’s first non-Norwegian limited partner.
 
Other investors in the new fund included Argentum, Fondinvesteringer, Vital, Gjensidige, Storebrand, KLP Forsikring, and a number of family offices.
 
HitecVision Private Equity IV has a hard cap of $300 million. Ertvaag said the firm “may go to work on one more international investor” although he added that the fundraising has a deadline of June 2006.
 
Pareto Private Equity and law firm Bugge, Arentz-Hansen og Rasmussen worked on the fundraising and fund formation process, according to a press release.
 
The fund will make buyout and growth capital investments in companies within the oil and gas sector in Europe and the US, typically investing between $15 million and $50 million.
 
Predecessor fund Energivekst is now fully committed and has invested in nine companies, two of which have listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The fund has returned approximately $150 million to its investors, said Ertvaag.
 
Established in 1994, HitecVision Private Equity currently has $400 million of assets under management.